The Love Song Volume 2: Not Too Late
by Chamomile Chameleon
Summary: Astro has taken the first few steps in his recovery, but the situation isn't looking any less dark. After escaping danger's clutches in the Himalayas, he comes home to face the criminal organization that abducted him. He meets someone who sparks the courage that had been long put out.During his mission she helps keep him on the right track and hunt down the head of the organization
1. Deep Wounds

In the guest house, Astro lay sleeping on the bed while he recharged. Dr. Tenma opened his chest and linked him to his phone with a couple of small wires. The others leaned in close around him, watching Astro's visual memory over his shoulder. The doctor fast forwarded it to all the important points. The most significant being captain Olga saying, "_Don't give me such a face, I own you! I was the highest bidder._" They all took a step back as Dr. Tenma turned it off.

"They sold him?!" Dr. O'Shay shouted.

Dr. Nakamura nodded her head. "Yes, it was on the recording." She shuddered, and then scowled. "Such a horrible woman... How dare they..." Wally held his chin as he thought aloud. "They were tracking us. Somehow their deal with this strange organization went south, so the captain decided to retrieve Astro on her own. Question is, why was he left in that abandoned bunker after she'd bought him? Who put him there?"

Dr. Tenma appeared nonchalant, but there was a secretive, angry gleam in his eyes. Wally was the first to notice and said so. "You know something about that don't you, Dr. Tenma?" The doctor nodded. Like a provoked bull Wally sprung him with the burning question, "What do you know?!" To his building frustration, he didn't get the answer he wanted. Dr. Tenma started for the door, saying, "Let's just say I'm in a better position to conduct an investigation than the police. That's all you need to know for now." A few seconds after he shut the door, Wally huffed and stomped after him. As he threw the door back open, he opened his mouth to give the doctor a piece of his mind, but Dr. Tenma had disappeared. There wasn't any sign of him.

Wally swallowed his unspoken words like hot coals and went back inside, muttering under his breath. "A magician as well as a scientist. _*Humph!*"_

Dr. O'Shay sat down next to Astro, staring at his face. The boy looked like he was in pain, but Dr. O'Shay knew he was just having a bad dream. His hand hovered over Astro's, trembling slightly. He wanted to comfort him, but hesitated. Unexpectedly, Dr. Nakamura put their hands together between hers and held on firmly.

He looked at her confusedly, shocked. Her soft eyes glowed under the little rays of light streaming through the window, silver tears underlining them. Dr. O'Shay smiled a little and gave her a nod. Then they both watched Astro as he dreamed.

* * *

**Day 11**

_Sitting in the confines of the dark, noisy truck, lost in the cries and moans of the new captives, Astro couldn't escape the sorrow he felt for them. They weren't like him, without anyone to miss or be looking for him. The brokenness of their hearts went so deep. If circumstances were different, if he were stronger, and if he were able, he'd help them._

_While he didn't consciously relate to them, he knew how deeply their wounds pained them. Without realizing it, he understood what it was to miss someone that much. The never yielding desire to go home was within the range of his sympathy, but not once did he question why. Living in a world where nothing made sense was daily routine. Questions did him little good. Survival depended on total obedience and a silent tongue. Anything that went against these two requirements, was dangerous and unnecessary. At this point in time, he'd finally come to accept things he didn't understand without concern or question._

_The truck stopped. Everyone stood up and waited for the doors to open. Many of the robots were holding onto each other for support. Professor Kinjo went over to Astro and gently pulled his arm. "We're here." He helped the boy stand up and kept him on his feet, gripping his shoulders. Astro's energy levels were so low by now, it was hard to keep steady._

_"I'll recharge you when we get inside," the professor whispered, opening Astro's chest plate. "What ever you do, do not leave my side. Both our lives depend on it. Okay?"_

_Twenty percent of his strength had been reactivated. Whatever was going on, the professor was serious. Astro nodded his answer. Professor Kinjo sighed deeply. "Good, good." The doors swung open to the smell of motor oil and the sounds of heavy machinery._

_"Everybody out!" roared an angry voice outside._

_As they were forced out, professor Kinjo kept his hand on Astro's shoulder. Leaning against the professor's side, he felt the jolts from his limp. He began to understand how the professor got that bad leg._

_They were separated from the robots by a friendly sounding female guide. She led them to an elevator that took them up above the noise._

_"Where is my new studio?" asked professor Kinjo._

_"Eight more floors up sir. It will also double as your living quarters," she answered in a disturbing perky tone._

_During the long ascending ride, Astro listened through the walls into the rooms they passed. There was a lot of talk about production costs and deadlines._

_A loud *ding* rang when they reached their floor. The doors parted and they entered a wide, open space. The conditions were much better than the small room the professor was working out of before. However, as for his personal needs, there wasn't much to accommodate him. All that had been provided was a cot with a blanket. A small bathroom was to the right._

_"How do you like it?"_

_They turned to an open door on the left, and met a man of average height with a deep voice. At least he seemed like a man at first. His foot steps were too regular, and he didn't smell like a human to Astro. The mysterious man bent down and took his hand, shaking it. "I hope the transportation wasn't too uncomfortable." Feeling the cold, smooth texture of his metal hand, Astro suddenly heard the manufactured quality of his voice very clearly. Being only a few feet away, he could even hear the tiny mechanisms in his voice box._

_"I'm assuming you're the '_King_'?" professor Kinjo said gruffly, gripping Astro's shoulder a little tighter._

_The robot rose up and folded his arms behind his back, standing with perfect, dignified posture. Using a tone that demanded respect, the robot answered, "That's right. I'm looking forward to working with you professor."_

* * *

Consciousness came rushing back at the sound of Victor's ear piercing snores. Astro shot up to his feet on the bed and peered into the dark, turning his headlights on. He was surprised to see only one beam of light in front of him. A quick systems check showed him that his right eye hadn't been repaired yet. The damage was too extensive to fix with spare parts. He'd have to have an entirely new eye put in. Besides that, he was in good condition.

Putting a hand over the right side of his face, he felt the rough fabric of an eyepatch. That was a good idea. This way he wouldn't scare the village children.

A single, loud snort brought his attention back to the dark room. He swept over his friends' faces with the light. Next door he could hear Dr. Nakamura and her mother sleeping. Everyone was accounted for, giving him some relief.

"Astro?" Dr. O'Shay whispered.

The spot light hit the doctor's face, making him squint. He shielded his eyes with his arm and whispered again. "Astro? Are you okay?"

For a moment Astro stood still, frozen by the overwhelming happiness and gratefulness to see him again. The bags underneath his eyes from worrying all night shown plainly on the doctor's face, causing tears to build in Astro's eyes. His right eye sparked a little underneath the eyepatch. He quickly lifted it to wipe them away.

Dr. O'Shay smiled. "It's alright Astro." He opened his arms wide and repeated himself. "It's alright." Astro's chest swelled up with all the emotions he suffered with in the shed. There wasn't enough room for all these feelings. The only way to relieve himself of them, was to let it all out in long, intense wails. He kept wiping his eyes but the tears wouldn't stop. All he could do was plop down and rub them fruitlessly.

Dr. O'Shay got up and pulled him into his arms, holding Astro's head against his shoulder. "There, there my boy. Everything's okay now." Astro bawled even harder, clinging to the doctor tightly.

It startled Dr. Nakamura and Mitchy awake. Instantly they went rushing into the room. She swung the door open and saw everyone quietly watching Astro. Dr. O'Shay had started humming the song she'd sung to him, making Astro calmer by the minute.

She looked at her mother and they shared a wide smile. They hugged each other as they watched Astro being lulled back to sleep, finally over his guilt and finding comfort in Dr. O'Shay's embrace.


	2. Under The Sea

They set out the next morning. The whole village was there to see them off. The families of the two girls gave Astro some lucky charms with their many thanks. The girls themselves gave him a conical hat. Astro never stopped smiling, the entire time. Dr. O'Shay watched him closely. It looked like he really wanted to say something. It was on the tip of his tongue, but he never said a word. As they were driving away, waving goodbye to their new friends, Dr. O'Shay felt encouraged. After the night before last, he assumed Astro would backslide. He was happy to be proven wrong. The boy was doing much better today, and standing on the edge of conquering the next step; communication! Things were definitely looking up.

Victor and Hector got them to the port a little early. They had enough time to talk and say goodbye before they split off, but something pulled Astro's attention out of the conversation, screams far in the distance.

He quickly turned his head. There was something small and black against the deep blue horizon. Astro immediately realized it was smoke, so he zoomed in to see what it was. Looking at it as if it were only a few miles away, he saw a large ship on fire. The men were scrambling into the life boats, but there were two life signs still inside.

Their screams intensified, completely blocking out all the other noise around him. He barely noticed Dr. O'Shay's hand on his shoulder. "Astro? What's wrong?" Instincts took over his mind and body. He kept his eyes forward, handed Dr. O'Shay his hat, and sprung into a sprint.

"Astro!" Dr. O'Shay shouted after him. "Astro?! What's wrong?!"

Astro wasn't paying attention. He leaped off the dock and rocketed off into the sky.

"What is he going after?" Wally asked.

Dr. O'Shay dropped his suitcase on the ground and opened it. He threw out nearly all his belongings until he found a pair of binoculars. Then he ran to the edge of the dock and looked for Astro. After refocusing them, he caught Astro's fleeting form headed towards a tower of rising black smoke. "Something horrible has happened." His voice was low and weak, afraid of what Astro was flying into. He let Wally have them as he turned to Hector and Victor. "We've got to go after him!" They both agreed.

"Let's go," they said together.

Nearing the ship, he counted the life signs twice to make sure he didn't miss anyone. Two men were still in the engine room.

With a loud, resonating cry, he blasted a hole in the side of the ship. The blue glow of his arm canon drew all eyes to him. As he was going inside, he heard some of the men shout, "It's Astro Boy!"

Navigating through the inferno inside was without challenge. When he met an obstacle, he either used his fists or his laser. Within seven minutes he found the remaining crew members. The captain was digging through the fallen wreckage that had pinned down his engineer. Astro pushed the captain aside and then determinedly dug the engineer out.

Getting out was about as difficult as getting in, only it took him a little longer with two passengers in his arms. Total, the entire rescue took eighteen minutes. They all made it out safely. Miraculously the engineer had only a twisted ankle and some minor bruising. However, by the time they got out, the three of them looked like they'd been through an epic battle, blackened by the intense smoke.

Astro received an applause when he reunited the captain and his engineer with their crew, but it was short-lived.

The flames spread across the entire deck, growing taller and spewing flaming hunks of metal and wood.

The captain face went white as he sat down. "I'm sorry Astro Boy..." Astro looked at him worriedly. That alone asked his question, so the captain told him the details. "We're transporting explosives... It's only a matter of minutes before the ship explodes."

The engineer dropped his head into his hands. "I'm not sure how many of us will survive the blast at this distance. We don't have enough time."

In two seconds, Astro made the most important decision of his life thus far. He jumped off the boat and flew back to the ship. He turned around and crashed into it with his shoulders. Arms spread out, he increased power full blast. From their point of view, the crew saw a bright star burning blue, feeling the wind and heat pushing and spinning their boats back. As they were going backwards, the ship was moving steadily forward. Suddenly it started picking up speed by the second. Before long, it was gone from sight.

Poor Dr. O'Shay had only just caught up to the ship's crew when it exploded. He could only sit there watching, reliving every moment like this one. For some reason though, he felt in his heart that Astro was alright, waiting for someone to come and get him.

"I'm on my way, Astro," Dr. O'Shay said. "Just sit tight. I'm coming."

* * *

Barely conscious, Astro could feel himself flying through the air. For a little while, it seemed like he would never land, but soon he felt the hard, unforgiving surface of the sea. He bounced off it for a long distance before he landed again, face first. This flipped him over and it repeated until he slowly came to a stop, making him feel like a skipping stone.

Finally sinking into the ocean, ironically he felt light, completely at ease. Somehow he knew he'd be with his friends and family again. For only a moment, at least it felt like it, he closed his eye. When he opened it again, he was laying on top of a beautiful coral reef. The sea around him was such a deep blue and full of light. Fishes of all colors and sizes were swimming around him. It was like being surround by a shattered rainbow or a glass mosaic. They glittered amazingly as they passed by.

Then, in a fright, they all rushed off. The reason showed his face with a sharp toothed smile as he swam up.


	3. Out Of The Depths

A friendly, killer whale nudged Astro's cheek with his nose, clicking and whistling almost in a sad way. In an attempt to communicate with him, Astro could only smile, almost completely paralyzed by the blast.

The fish starting coming out of their hiding places. Once again he was surrounded by all their radiant colors. He laughed out of both relief and joy. At least he wasn't friendless in this vulnerable state, unable to get himself to safety.

He noticed then that the whale had a lot of scars all over his body. There was some recent stitching over his right eye. Somebody cared very much for this whale. It was evident in his calm, kindly nature, but Astro wondered how he'd gotten all those wounds.

He surprised Astro by nosing him up off the reef and bumping him up onto top of his head. Like a broken doll, Astro laid limply on his stomach. His head hung on the side of the whale's face, eye half closed.

He watched the ocean floor pass by as they took off, covered in teal light with silver, wavy lines dancing all over the place. The sea life went on undisturbed as they starting rising up to the surface. The colorful coral reef fell under them like a sinking fortress.

As all these beautiful things passed under his view, he already began missing it. It felt like being swept away from an amazing day-dream, the beautiful place he'd never meant to come across, but he took away with him the peace it'd given him.

The wind and sunshine kissed them gently as they popped up out of the water. Then a wonderful sound came drifting along the ocean breeze. His vision was blackening into a tunnel, but at the end of the darkness, he saw the skycranes flying towards them. Normally he'd be happy to see them, but all of a sudden his emotions went dead silent, withered underneath the inner noise of his machinery slowing down. The only thing he could feel now was his electronic brain shutting down. His heart had stopped. Everything had stopped. Dr. O'Shay's voice was the last sound to come to his ears, like someone squeezing through a tight space. "Astro! I'm here, Astro!"

"_Doctor_," Astro thought fuzzily. "..._I'm here too_... _I'm... here_..."

As he was waking up, his internal clock updated itself, showing him it'd been three days, eighteen hours, and twenty-seven minutes since he was last conscious.

His vision was still refocusing, but through the digital mess he saw the shape of a familiar face. Just as soon as everything was made clear, a sweet smile welcomed him back to the world. Baby Chitan squealed and hugged Astro's face and he in turn squeezed him tight. They laughed together as Dr. O'Shay stepped into the room.

"Good morning, Astro."

Astro looked beyond Chitan's smile to find him standing beside his bed, dressed in his white and pink lab coat and holding a clipboard. "You gave us quite a scare young man." Dr. Nakamura came in then. She went to stand by him, wearing her lab coat too. She leaned in and said softly, "Please be a little more careful next time."

Astro nodded, and then looked around. He was back at the clinic in Shinkō inside one of the recovery rooms.

Dr. O'Shay scooped Chitan out of Astro's arms, saying, "You're fully repaired, but you need to take it easy for a little while." The surprise he'd been holding all night burst into a grin on his face as he revealed it. "Then we'll be heading home with your new little brother." For emphasis he bounced the baby, making him giggle.

At first Astro's face was blank but, as it sank in, he slowly started smiling. Dr. Nakamura winked at him. "We'll go back to my house tonight. I've got all Chitan's things packed." Astro relaxed into his pillows and sighed. In this wonderful moment, everything was right in his world.

"We'll let you rest now," Dr. O'Shay said.

Before he left with Chitan and Dr. Nakamura, he bent down and gave Astro a hug with his free arm. Chitan reached down and joined in, spreading his arms around both Astro's and Dr. O'Shay's necks. Dr. Nakamura gave him one too and kissed his forehead. "We'll see you in a bit."

Sleep came easily to him as he listened to their foot steps. Their soft voices grew quieter the deeper he fell.

* * *

The air was cool in the small courtyard in front of Seikatsu Apartments. The cherry trees shaded the golden-haired girl as she sat down. Her porcelain, delicate fingers opened the silver locket around her neck. It played a soft tune that always seemed to give her dreams to life.

Her bronze eyes wandered up into the trees, falling in love with the light spilling between the branches and pink blooms.

The music picked up, giving her the undeniable urge to get up and dance. She lifted the locket up off of her neck. Then she set it down on a small tree root and began to twirl about the garden. Pretending the flowers were alive, she imagined them as her audience.

It was just a little after one o'clock. Past the short, black iron fence, she noticed people strolling down the sidewalk. Children were speeding by on their bicycles. Couples were holding hands. Elderly women were chatting, carrying baskets of produce from the natural market down the street. There weren't any robots passing by. In this district, they weren't exactly welcome.

"Miss Nuka?"

The girl stopped and turned her head back, her feathery curls catching the light as they swayed.

"Your father's on the phone upstairs." said her elderly nanny.

Nuka's heart was humming with excitement. She snatched the locket and rushed up to her apartment. He was waiting there for her in the kitchen, behind the screen lowered above the table.

"Papa?!" she answered, dashing in and climbing up onto the table.

"Hello sunshine, how are you?" he asked lovingly.

She replied, "I'm fine of course, but how are you? Are you in much pain?" The man nodded slowly. His face was covered in bandages. "I'll be able to come home in about a month, maybe longer."

Nuka's joy started leaving her one exhale at a time. It had been almost a month already since he'd left her here all by herself. "But you promised you'd come home just as soon as you were well. I can't wait to show you around. Metro City is so great papa."

Her father chuckled and said: "Yes, I know dear. I've been there before. I wish I was there now, but you know there's still some business left that I need to take care of first. And I didn't promise, I said _maybe_. Don't tell me you've forgotten. You know that doesn work." Nuka folded her arms and lowered her head. "But what about my first day at school? I was hoping you'd be at home to see me off... and be here when I get back."

"I'm sorry, but I'll call you. You can tell me all about it then, okay?" he asked, tilting his head as if to catch a glimpse of her face.

She knew he was without even looking, so she mustered up the biggest smile she could and raised her head. "Okay, papa... I love you." With a relieved breath he said: "I love you too."


End file.
